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I tried not to think of sharing a bed with him. Nothing had happened, except it had. When we woke the next morning, we faced each other, my hand up by his face as if I’d caressed his strong jawline in my sleep or touched the scars on his neck. His hand was over mine gently as if he’d tried to keep my hand there. Then, realizing the compromising position of our limbs, we removed ourselves from the other. It hadn’t been a touch of passion but one of comfort, and I wasn’t apologetic about it. I would just pretend it never happened.
“Autumn…” Sahlyn’s voice was gentle. “I don’t think I ever apologized for…everything.”
I lifted a brow. Well, that was unexpected, and it clenched my insides. I knew Sahlyn was talking about trying to kill me and his failure in keeping the queen from knowing I was alive.
“I know,” was all I could say.
He studied my profile. I didn’t turn to him because I didn’t want him to see what his words did to me. I knew he didn’t want to do the things the queen forced him to do, but he’d never actually apologized for conspiring to kill me.
I glanced at him as he did me, and we stared at each other for an inappropriate length of time. It was pointless to deny there was something between us. I didn’t want to acknowledge the heat and chemistry, because I knew it would give me nothing but misery.
My eyes went to his throat, to the red scars on his neck that did nothing to dim his desirability. On the contrary, they added to that dangerous quality of him. My eyes snagged on the large breadth of his shoulders, but thinking of his body was hazardous, so my eyes raised. Then they lingered on the endearing scar on his chin, and my gaze dragged to his lips.
We had stopped without realizing it and drawn together without noticing. My eyes took in their fill of Sahlyn’s mouth, which had curved into an insufferable grin. Then, finally, my gaze lifted from his sensual lips to his stunning eyes. In them was something brooding and undecipherable.
I opened my mouth to speak, but then a yell cut through the forest, raising the hairs on my arms.
Sahlyn pulled his sword out with unmatchable speed, and I quickly pulled my bow from my shoulder and an arrow from my quiver. I nocked an arrow on instinct and met Sahlyn’s eyes. There was a killing calmness, a fire of battle in his eyes that I could match.
Theyell came again, an angry raised voice in a brogue I’d never heard before.
Then I felt it. Dark fingers of dread slithering against my spine. Trepidation settled in the pit of my stomach. I knew this feeling, and my eyes cut to Sahlyn. He gave me a quick nod, understanding my panicked eyes. I didn’t know why I felt the dark magic, but I didn’t have time to think about it as a growling howl answered another angry yell.
Without thinking, I headed toward the shout, and Sahlyn quickly fell into step beside me.
“Autumn,” he whispered, and I glanced at him from the corner of my eyes. His eyes seemed to ask if I was sure I wanted to barge into whatever was going on or be on our way, but I continued. I made my decision. If someone was in danger, I wanted to help, even if it impeded our quest.
We stepped from the trees into a clearing. Sunlight filtered in, dappling the darkness. This wood was impenetrable darkness, hence why it remained snowy. Daylight couldn’t permeate to melt the snow. But this clearing was dotted with sunlight, and green grass and wildflowers grew in its splendor. My gaze snapped quickly to the figures in the clearing.
“Come on, ye bastards.”
A dwarf with a long red beard, traveler's clothing, and a ferocious, bronze, double-edged battle-ax that he swung expertly stood in the center, right in a patch of bright sunlight. Four demon wolves growled and snarled in the trees from the corner of the line of darkness, staying clear of the sunlight. Their gleaming orb eyes were terrifyingly bright against the gloom of their hides. Lacking the coarse fur of regular wolves, the demon wolves had a leather-like appearance. Some had patches of fur around their neck and on their tails. I had heard the hide of the wolves of the Underworld was stronger than regular wolves, but my arrow had penetrated it just as easily as any other creature when I’d saved the huntsman. Their depthless eyes glowed with the excitement of the hunt.
The dwarf twirled his ax and dipped low into a fighting stance. “Come and get me, ye darkness-lovin’-sons-of-bitches!”
The dwarf laughed under his breath. “Bitches. Because ye dogs,” he snickered.
I lifted a brow. Despite the danger the dwarf was in, he pulled out humor. This dwarf might be my kind of fighting partner.
He was baiting them, trying to get them to step into the light. Perhaps the sunlight destroyed them. I didn’t know. But I knew arrows killed them, so I got down on one knee and pulled my bow into position.
“Autumn, are you su—”
“Shut up, Huntsman; I'm trying to focus here.”
He took a breath but remained silent at my side as I quickly fired my arrow into the neck of the closest wolf. I knew once my arrow flew that the rest of the wolves would be on us, but at least there were three of us now and only four of them.
Before the arrow embedded in the wolf's neck, I was nocking another and firing it as another demon wolf charged us. My arrow sank into its gaping mouth.
“Shit,” I heard Sahlyn mutter and glanced up from my focus on the next circling wolf. His eyes were on the tree line, and I looked back. Two more wolves had appeared to replace the two I had killed.
Without a thought, I nocked and fired again. This time I missed, and I quickly nocked again. I brushed my eyes over the dwarf who had stepped into the darkness to battle a wolf. His mighty ax cleaved into its shoulder, which spurted black blood, and then he pulled it free and smashed it into the wolf’s head. That sent the wolf sprawling to the ground. My eyes went to Sahlyn again as his blade cut a wolf’s head off. It was satisfying watching a weapon I had crafted expertly handled. For the first time, I noticed that the Naphire stone in the pommel glowed in this dark setting. I had never seen it glow before, and I wondered if it did so only when he was fighting with it, when there was danger, or if it sensed dark magic as I did. I was as intrigued by that as I was with watching Sahlyn’s muscular form twirl and pivot as he fought another attacking wolf.
My attention snapped back just as a demon wolf broke off from the rest to come at me. I nocked an arrow, but the creature picked up speed, and I wouldn’t have the time to fire. I disregarded the bow and yanked my short sword from its sheath. It looked like I would have to get down and dirty with this one. I knew I was no match for the wolf in strength, so instead, I used its momentum against it. The wolf was going to launch at me, so I positioned myself accordingly. I arranged the tip of the sword so that it drove into the wolf’s chest just as its teeth came to connect with my throat. I thrust and let the wolf take me down to the ground. The sword embedded, and the teeth never made it to my flesh.
A little unorthodox, but it worked.
Before I could get myself out from under the wolf, strong hands removed the dead animal and yanked me up off the ground. I stood in the towering breadth of Sahlyn as his eyes roamed over the black blood that had leaked onto my blue cloak and thick white tunic beneath my black vest.
